Baby born on side of road in Texas becomes blessing for law enforcers

Around 8 a.m., Tarant County Precinct 5 Deputy Constable Craig Diebold was south of Benbrook, on his way in to work.

Suddenly, a Jeep Cherokee blew past him on U.S. 377. He turned on his squad car’s lights and siren, signaling the driver to slow down.

A few miles down the road, when the two vehicles were at a stop light, Caleb Hall, who was driving the Jeep, rolled his window down and told Diebold that his wife was having a baby.

Diebold flipped his sirens and lights on, planning to escort the Halls to a hospital in downtown Fort Worth.

Soon, he saw the Jeep pull to the side of the road, so he did the same.

“I said, ‘Caleb, pull to the side of the road. I’m having this baby,’” said Destiny Hall, 26. “He said, ‘Stop pushing.’

“I said, ‘I’m not pushing, but this baby is coming anyway.’”

‘What do I do?’

Destiny Hall had felt steady contractions Sunday night, so much so that she and her husband spent several hours at the hospital until they were sent to their Granbury home around 4:30 a.m. Monday because she wasn’t in “active labor.”

Two hours later, contractions started that were so strong that she wasn’t sure they could make the drive back to the hospital.

“We were speeding because my husband was dead set on getting me to the hospital in time,” Destiny Hall said.

Both knew that wouldn’t happen when Caleb pulled the Jeep off the highway near a gas station at U.S. 377 and Winscott Road in Benbrook.

By the time Diebold reached the couple to tell them an ambulance was on the way, he learned the baby was coming.

“The baby wasn’t waiting,” he said. “I was scared to death. The baby started coming out and I thought, ‘What do I do?’”

“Lately, everybody’s hearts have been down, with all that has happened” with the Dallas police shooting, Diebold said softly. “This was really uplifting.”

Yet to be named

The baby, who has yet to be named — but weighed in at 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 20 inches long when she finally reached Harris hospital — was wrapped in a red blanket the Halls had in the car.

When the ambulance arrived, workers cut the umbilical cord.

And everyone was so happy that everything went well, and that mom and baby were healthy, they started posing for photos together.

Thank you, Lord. You orchestrated that. It was the right time and the right place. It was something that everybody needed.

Destiny Hall, who had her second child on the side of the highway

“It was by far one of the most surreal moments,” said Destiny Hall, now a mother of two, who knows her baby’s birth was a bright spot for law enforcers who have faced so much sadness recently. “I felt so happy and blessed to be in that moment, right there, right then, with these wonderful gentlemen.

“Thank you, Lord. You orchestrated that. It was the right time and the right place,” she said. “It was something that everybody needed.”